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GUEST: Marta Moreno, Executive Director of El Comite de Longmont in Colorado, serving Denver County, Carolyn Slauson, Program Director of El Comite

On Tuesday, federal officials raided six meatpacking facilities across the country arresting 1,282 workers on suspicion of being undocumented and possessing stolen identities of U.S. citizens. The raid was carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “Operation Wagon Train,” was the largest ever workplace immigration crackdown in the US. All the raids took place at plants operated by the privately owned Greeley, Colorado based Swift & Company. Swift denied knowingly hiring workers without documents and was not charged by ICE. Union and community leaders have condemned the raids saying that the mass arrests left some children without one or both of their parents. The arrested workers were transported to out of state detention facilities. Only 5% of them have so far been charged with identity theft. The day after the raids, attorneys for the United Food and Commercial Workers filed in Denver’s federal court claiming that the constitutional rights of workers had been violated. According to the filing, those arrested are being denied access to lawyers.

El Comité is a grassroots Latino community organization dedicated to assisting Latinos in and around Longmont through advocacy and services. This includes Latinos born in the United States and immigrant and refugee populations from all Latin American Countries.

For more information, visit www.elcomitedelongmont.com.